US to abandon Chinese-owned Waldorf at UN General Assembly
atimes
(From AP)The U.S. State Department will abandon decades of tradition this fall at the annual U.N. General Assembly by setting up shop in a hotel other than New York’s Waldorf-Astoria, which was purchased last year by a Chinese company.
Officials said Wednesday the department would base its U.N. operations at the New York Palace Hotel instead of the famed Waldorf. The officials did not give a reason for the switch, which will affect hundreds of American diplomats and support staff who travel to New York for the General Assembly each September and usually stay and hold meetings on two secured floors at the Waldorf.
However, officials pointed to Hilton Worldwide’s sale of the Waldorf-Astoria to China’s Beijing-based Anbang Insurance Group for $1.95 billion last year, a deal that prompted security concerns. Terms of the sale allow Hilton to run the hotel for the next 100 years but also call for “a major renovation” that officials say has raised eyebrows in Washington, where fears of Chinese eavesdropping and cyberespionage run high.
The U.S. suspects China-linked hackers were behind a recent massive breach of federal personnel records that compromised the data of millions of government workers.
